What is the single best science fiction novel of all time?

[Ruin Explorer]

Oooooh we're see a lot more questionable, dated, and even hilariously bad choices than in the fantasy thread so far. The fantasy thread it was like 80% definitely arguable great books.

It's much harder to pick just one book out of all the great SF novels though - I mean, what you're asking me to decide between novels by JG Ballard, William Gibson, Adrian Tchaikovsky (lately graduated from "kind of a fun hack" to "wow this guy is actually amazing"), Iain M. Banks, Vernor Vinge, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ursula Le Guin (probably the only one you'll get in both threads!), Philip K. Dick and so on! Come on!

Personally I can easily dismiss Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Pournelle as and bunch of others as outdated and/or disappointing, but that's still not going to help me very much.

I guess if you put a gun to my head I'd probably say Consider Phlebas, but at the same time I don't actually believe it's the best, just one that vibed with my post-industrial-era-raised soul to an incredible degree.

 

[Clint_L]

Has anyone ever read Tad Williams's "Otherland" series? I started on it, and never got further than about 100 pages. Everyone who's finished it raves about it, though.

I read them - they're good cyberpunk-lite. Borderline YA texts. Easy reads; not super deep. They more or less take the premise of Neuromancer and play around with it, adding a fantasy spin, like so many other novels post-1985 but better executed. I recommend them, though Snow Crash does something similar only much better.

The Otherland books are tonally more like Ready Player One. Which is another good read.

Edit: For me, great science fiction has to be driven by ideas. Shelley invented the genre by asking the basic question: what are the costs and consequences of pursuing new knowledge, technologies, and paradigms? Otherland isn't really pushing any boundaries; it's playing around with the ideas that Gibson, in particular, popularized.

 

[Parmandur]

They really weren't. There were a few fringe scientists who explored the idea in some very dubious experiments where they were duped by simple stage tricks.

Close enough for Sci-Fi purposes.

 

[Tutara]

‘Roadside Picnic’ is one of my favourites. Is it the best? When I’m in the mood, sure.

Honourable mention to ‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’, which is more of a short story than a novel.

 

[Clint_L]

Oh man, how could I forget...how about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick?

Now that I think about it, almost all the Sci-Fi I've read is old and are essentially classics. If anyone can suggest some good Transhuman Sci-Fi, I'd much appreciate it. Some consider Transhumanism a subgenre of Cyberpunk, but I do not (Transhumanism doesn't require a "punk" or counter-culture clash, nor a "The Man is putting us down" kind of rebellion).

The Ancillary books by Anne Leckie are fantastic, as are all recent sci-fi books by Adrian Tchaikovsky; all of them explore transhuman themes. Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin is decades ahead of its time. Becky Chambers uses transhumanism as a central theme; all of her books are great. The Murderbot books by Martha Wells are a delightful take on transhuman themes. Philip K. Dick, obviously, as you mention, and if you want to go there, William Burroughs. Akira. It's probably the core character theme in all of Star Trek, established right away through the Kirk/Spock dynamic and heavily represented in all subsequent texts.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Personally I can easily dismiss Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Pournelle as and bunch of others as outdated and/or disappointing, but that's still not going to help me very much.

I liked many of these when I was younger, but most of their work, especially in science fiction, has not held up as well as it could have.

I'm not sure it's "the best," by any measure, but without question, the science fiction novel I've re-read the most is the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

The only science fiction author today where I preorder their books, sight unseen, is Becky Chambers, but again, I'm not sure if I could say her work is the pinnacle of the genre. (Although it's very, very good.)

 

[Dioltach]

I've decided to change my vote to "Hiero's Journey" by Sterling E. Lanier. Psychic priests, telepathic bears and evil cultists. The sequel has catpeople and a giant slug that just wants a friend.

 

[Muad'dib Pendragon]

For me, it's Dune. Terraforming, FTL, politics, pharmaceuticals that propel human performance, and associated quest to control THE most sought-after resource in the known universe, all set roughly 11,000 years in Earth's future. Call it space opera, science-fantasy, or anything else one likes. Hard to argue with it as a science fiction work, though.

That said, I have yet to read some works cited and, frankly, may have a somewhat generational bias so am open to changing my mind... but not my avatar!

 

[Lord Shark]

Close enough for Sci-Fi purposes.

Especially since John W. Campbell, one of the most influential editors/publishers in Golden Age SF, was an eager promoter of psi "science' and in fact coined the word "psionics."

 

[Parmandur]

Especially since John W. Campbell, one of the most influential editors/publishers in Golden Age SF, was an eager promoter of psi "science' and in fact coined the word "psionics."

Yeah, if we discount anything with some level of science goofiness, there's not a lot of sci-fi left. And honestly, Dune doesn't have that much.